


Chandravanshini

by avani



Series: Daughters-in-Law of the Dynasty [3]
Category: Baahubali (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 02:13:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13965138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/pseuds/avani
Summary: Dying is less difficult than she expects.





	Chandravanshini

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AllegoriesInMediasRes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/gifts).



Dying is less difficult than she expects; it requires only that she close her eyes and surrender to the tide at last. When she opens her eyes again, Baahu is not there. She does not expect him to be. She does not expect him her to forgive her crimes, her broken promises, and yet—

When a voice speaks, it says: “Was _that_ your notion of protection?”

Her sister-in-law laughs, long and low. After all these years, the memory of mockery in that same musical tone stings, and Sivagami demands: “Would you have done any better in my place?”

*

“Need I say it?” asks her sister-in-law, with all the assurance of a lifetime spent believing in her own superiority. “If you died and I survived, I would grant your son the position he rightfully earned. I would treat the daughter-in-law of Mahishmati with the respect she deserves. Their heir would draw his first breath surrounded by luxury and love.” 

Sivagami does not answer; she cannot. 

“And if not,” continues Baahu’s mother, eyes dry, “I should never be so cruel as to make him love me.” Her voice cracks with grief and guilt. “Nor so careless as to love him in return.”

*

Her mother spoke of Kunti, who loved Madri’s twins as her own, and, with the same breath, of Kaikeyi, who did not allow her partiality for Rama to rob her son of his rights. An old tale, often told, but with a different outcome every time. 

She could hold two babies to her breast, their breath still milky-sweet, and promise herself that love should be equal to blood; or she could forsake justice, cradle one close, and let herself think: mine, mine, mine! 

(Not hers. Never hers.) 

Oh my daughter; shall your name be remembered with celebration or with scorn?

**Author's Note:**

> Truthfully, I owe this to AllegoriesInMediaRes, who prompted: _Could you write a drabble between Sivagami and Mama Baahu, where Mama Baahu goes off on her for how she treated her son and DIL? Okay maybe not go off on her, bc elders and respect and all that, but kind of chews her out?_. Please direct all praise that way!  
>  * Kunti is of course from the _Mahabharata_ (and raised two of the Pandavas, Nakula and Sahadeva, as her own), while Kaikeyi is from the _Ramayana_ (and infamous for engineering the banishment of her stepson Rama so that her son Bharata would be King). Much of the narrative tension in Sivagami's story--and I'd argue, the flashback section--is exactly what epic archetype we'll end up seeing.  
>  * This follows a lot of the lunar imagery I established for Sivagami back in "Suryavanshini," which was written back when the first movie was the only one out--and if I needed any more reason to hate Bhalla in the sequel, he goes and uses solar metaphors to describe his mother, ruining all my hard work (Humph!).


End file.
